Today, all across the web, you may have seen blacked-out websites with a message saying:
This site is participating in the Internet blackout. This Saturday, February 28th, Section 92A of the Copyright Act is due to come into force. This website has voluntarily been taken down in protest against this law, which will be used to disconnect New Zealanders from the internet based on accusations of copyright infringement, without a trial and without evidence held up to court scrutiny. May we be very clear: we do not support or condone copyright infringement or illegal downloads. But this blatant disregard towards the basic human right to a fair trial is completely unjust and unworkable and it has the potential to punish New Zealand businesses and individuals where in fact no laws have been broken. Similar laws have been rejected in the EU as being against a fair balance between various fundamental rights;, rejected in the UK due to "impracticalities", and rejected in Germany as being "Unfit for Germany, Unfit For Europe". We don"t care who voted for the law in the first place. We just want it stopped. We call on the Minister responsible, National"s Simon Power, to do the right thing and repeal Section 92A immediately. Visit CreativeFreedom.org.nz to learn more
This site joined thousands of others and was taken down until a few moments ago.
The New Zealand Cabinet met today and discussed the Copyright (New Technologies) Amendment Act and the implementation of S.92A, which was due to come into force on 28th February. Nat Torkington was live at the press briefing following this meeting and has reported that the NZ government has delayed the implementation of S.92A until 27th March. If both parties to the voluntary code of practise for ISP's do not reach agreement by that date the government has indicated its willingness to suspend that section.
S.92A delayed until 27th March
The blackout protest was designed to run only until today. People are restoring their sites and avatars on Twitter, Facebook, and other social media sites. This does not mean that the battle is won - the law still stands and will come into force on 27th March should the two parties reach agreement. This still leaves New Zealanders out of the equation with industry groups finding a common ground for voluntarily removing users access to the Net.
Initial reports stated the implementation of S.92A was delayed until 29th March. The date has since been confirmed to be 27th March.
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